4x2km

Apr 19 2018

Wednesday – 4x2km OTW

Monday and Tuesday – no training. It’s a tough week to find time to train. My parents are visiting. On Tuesday, it was my daughter’s 18th birthday. On Thursday, it will be my birthday.

The weather is great and we visited one of the attractions of Brno, the Villa Tugendhat, a 1930 building by Mies van der Rohe, a famous architect.

Yesterday, we went to the rowing club so my parents could watch the rowing training of their grandsons, and I made use of the opportunity to sneak in a 4x2km/5min. The last time I had done this session OTW was in August.

Interestingly, in warm water and with little wind, I managed a 247W average power and a 2:10.2 average 500m pace.

Today, the workout summary is:

Workout Summary - media/20180418-1525480o.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|08000|36:17.0|02:16.1|231.9|26.2|173.2|183.0|08.4 W-|08000|36:17.0|02:16.1|231.9|26.2|173.2|183.0|08.4 R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|183.0|00.0 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 00|02000|08:28.1|02:07.0|238.2|25.6|169.2|179.0|09.2 01|02000|09:39.9|02:25.0|234.4|26.0|173.1|179.0|08.0 02|02000|08:32.5|02:08.1|227.9|26.6|175.5|181.0|08.8 03|02000|09:36.9|02:24.2|227.4|26.6|174.8|183.0|07.8

So a 231W average and a 2:16.1 average 500m pace. It was quite choppy, which usually reduces the power a bit (at same perceived rate of exertion), and the water was colder. So at 93% of the power, compared to last August, I rowed at 96% of the pace. Seems pretty consistent. I was expecting the average pace drop to be larger. I am thinking that water depth is important too. The lake in Trebon (where I rowed last August’s 4x2km) is shallow with a sandy bottom. The Brno lake is deep, with a rocky bottom.

When I downloaded the charts, I was annoyed that I had forgotten that the NK SpeedCoach doesn’t record the rest strokes when you program intervals with rest.

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The slide show shows the technique charts that I found interesting. Catch angle influenced by head vs tailwind and by chop. The same thing can be seen for effective drive length. Wash was gradually increasing during the workout, as I got more tired.

This was a nice, pretty intensive workout. I had fun. It’s nice to row at 26/27spm, 80% of maximum effort, and cover the 8-9 minute effort with confidence. Also, there were sailboats and other scullers out on the water, so I had to pass people and watch traffic, which makes time go by so fast, in comparison with the ergometer.

I am adding to pictures from the weekend, which I forgot to attach to the blog. One of a coach who got towed in on Saturday morning. Engine problems with the launch, on the middle of the lake. The water guards told us he was their first “rescue” of the year. Another picture showing the mirror flat water on Sunday, which quickly became choppy while we were changing clothes. An old trick of our rowing lake.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: 1x, 4x2km, OTW, rowing, single, training

Feb 12 2018

4x2k, struggling

I looked up my previous average time for the 4x2k and it was 1:51.9 pace in December. I decided to target 1:52 split, but I knew it was going to be hard, after a pretty exhausting day at work.

Warming up with some speed bursts at 24, 28 and 30 SPM.

In the first interval, I managed 1:52.1 but I felt I should slow down a bit. I started the second interval relaxed at 1:53 but as I got into it, and by focusing on good technique, I managed to bring down the average split in the second half of this 2k, and scored another 1:52.1.

In the third interval, I focused on sitting straight and only pushing with the legs in the first half of the drive. I also played some mind games, alternating focus between the next 250 marker or the next full minute, whichever came first. In the beginning of the 2k, these two things happen a few seconds apart, but as you continue, the gap becomes wider, and you end the row with something to row towards every 30 seconds. This worked so well that I managed a 1:51.8 split. Much better than expected (I was expecting to fight handle down demons).

I paid for it in the beginning of the final, fourth interval. I had somehow drained my mental energy in that third interval, and suddenly I was looking at 1:56 and 1:57 splits and unable to lower them. The fact that this is pure mental was proven as I passed the 1000m mark. I was focusing again on the next full minute or 250m marker, and suddenly the splits started coming back to the desired values. I kept gradually lowering them and with 250m to go I rated up to 30spm and 1:45 pace to try and bring the total time under 7:30. I missed that target by a second.

Given the exhausting working day and the fact that I am not feeling 100%, I am happy with the result.

By sanderroosendaal • rowing • 0 • Tags: 4x2k, 4x2km, concept2, ergometer, intervals, OTE, rowing

Dec 10 2017

Marker Workout (OK)

This morning, we had a late breakfast, and instead of working out, I had a lazy morning. We had lunch in town with some old friends. Then there was a small thing to fix around the house, so it was after 4pm when I changed to rowing gear and went to my erg basement.

The workout of the day was a 4x2km, but I didn’t look up any recent results for this workout. I did a 2km warming up and decided to row this workout as if I was rowing 2km segments of a hard 10km:

Focus on rhythm and technique
Don’t go too low with Stroke Rate – keep the stroke light
Work from a base pace of 1:53 per 500m, go faster only when doing it respecting the previous two bullet points
in the first three intervals, a set of 10 hard strokes at the half way point
Accelerate and empty the tank in the final interval

After the workout, I scrolled through the PM history to find the last 4x2km. This was the result:

Today’s workout was executed exactly according to the plan. No drama, except that the final 300m were really hard.

And here is how that looks in a chart:

I also looked at a few charts to check if I really was a consistent in rhythm and technique as it felt during the row. I had most difficulty to get into the rhythm at the start of each interval, where pace was oscillating between 1:54 and 1:52. The other hard part was around 1100m to go. Here are the charts:

By sanderroosendaal • rowing • 0 • Tags: 4x2km, concept2, erg, OTE, pete plan, rowing, training

Aug 24 2017

According to Stravistix, I should be Fresh

Wednesday

This was supposed to be one of the last “hard” weeks before the World Rowing Masters Regatta. So after a complex day at work I drove to the rowing club. I was determined to do the 4x2km / 5min session. It hadn’t been so hard doing it a week ago.

But I was still feeling tired, even though Strava told me I am Fresh:

I think Strava being geared to endurance sports has some difficulty to estimate muscular fatigue that happens during a weekend of sprint racing. The other thing Stravistix doesn’t account for is driving a trailer, work related stress and lack of sleep. I am guilty of all three.

The Masters rowers made fun of me when I showed up with the Quiske gadget, a phone, and a SpeedCoach. They told me I should also take a battery pack with me to charge all that equipment.

They were right. When I set off, the SpeedCoach battery was 0/5. Luckily, the Garmin Forerunner was all charged up. But it wasn’t fun, because if the SpeedCoach would die during the 4x2k, I would have to switch to an alternative distance measurement.

There was a lot of wake and chop going on but despite being tired, I actually enjoyed the two first intervals. It’s fun to go at 26spm and just try to let the boat run. However, the third interval started out difficult. I was feeling the tiredness.

Then the SpeedCoach battery died on me and that was it. I decided to slowly row back to the dock.

Today, looking at the heart rate, I can see I was really tired, despite what Stravistix says. Look at the comparison with a week ago:

This morning, I woke up in time to go to the rowing club before work, but I decided to sleep for another ten minutes. I woke up an hour later. Well, I guess a rest day was due. Sometimes the plans don’t work out.

I did look at the Quiske boat acceleration and oar angle measurement:

I took samples from the beginning and end of each interval. Looks pretty consistent to me.

Tomorrow: A gentle row before work. After work, back to the club to pick up the trailer and drive it for Breclav. Another weekend of racing.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 2 • Tags: 4x2km, HD, rowing, single, training

Aug 17 2017

Thursday – 4x2km in Trebon

We are racing in Trebon coming weekend, and today we moved to this lovely little town in South Bohemia.

We did the three hour drive “around lunch”, leaving Brno at 11am and arriving at 2pm. We rigged the boats. Daughter Lenka went for a training in the double, my sons Robin and Dominik rowed the single, Iva went on the single, and I did my planned 4x2km in the single.

It was great to row on an Albano buoyed course again. There were plenty of other boats on the water. This place is a popular destination for an end-of-summer training camp, and there were four or five rowing clubs on the water.

Great rowing at 26spm. I passed lots of boats. I worked on keeping the stroke light, and even though I was in the red for heart rate and power, it didn’t feel like a hard workout when I was doing it. After the workout, I had to drink lots of water, though.

Work Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-SPM-|-Pwr-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 01|02000| 08:54 |02:13.5| 25.4| 248 | 168 | 176 | 8.8 03|02000| 08:33 |02:08.2| 26.5| 241 | 170 | 178 | 8.8 05|02000| 08:42 |02:10.6| 26.9| 254 | 173 | 183 | 8.5 07|02000| 08:33 |02:08.4| 26.9| 246 | 174 | 185 | 8.7 Workout Summary --|10150| 54:43 | 2:41.7| 21.2| 211 | 164 | 185 | 8.7

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: 4x2km, hard endurance, OTW, rowing, single, training, trebon

Mar 20 2017

Cool stuff you can do with an Empower Oarlock

Saturday

I flew from Newark in the evening. Dropped my bags in the morning and took a train to Manhattan. My exercise for the day was hours and hours of walking.

At the end of the day, I took the flight to London, then London-Vienna, then a car home. Arrived at 2:30pm. Romana wasn’t at home. There had been a burglary in the houses her company is building near Pardubice. They got into two almost finished houses and took the stoves and cookers. She spent the whole day waiting for police technicians to come and try to find fingerprints. Not sure if they will ever catch them.

No exercise on Sunday.

Monday

This week is our annual training retreat. We drove to Račice, the “Labe Arena National Olympic Watersport Center” north of Prague, a three hour drive from Brno. It’s a long name but it’s just a FISA compliant rowing canal. We will be here until Friday. My plan is to train early in the morning and then go to the office in Prague.

Here is the club’s trailer a few minutes after we arrived.

First, the girls went for a training. I removed the Empower oarlock from my single and mounted it on Iva’s boat. Calibration was done quickly and off she went. There is a problem with her stroke. Romana complains that she has an exaggerated lean back which doesn’t add speed. So I wanted to see this.

So here is her “force curve” as measured by the Empower oarlock:

Two things are different from my own power curve. First, the average to peak power ratio is much lower than mine. Second, there is a kink in the curve around 19 degrees, which is where the lean back starts. Iva has a “wash” value of 27 degrees, which is about double my value. For comparison, here are two of my workouts from today:

It will be interesting for Iva to work on it and take another measurement for example on Friday. Or to set up her SpeedCoach to show wash and let her work on reducing it.

So after the girls finished, it was time to swap the oarlocks back and get my own workout in before dinner time. I started with the same workout as a year. A 4x2km. The warming up was recorded as the last part of Iva’s workout (forgot to reset the SpeedCoach):

It was just a 2k with some faster intervals towards the end. Then I turned my boat, removed one layer of clothing and got ready for my first 2k.

I was very curious to see how I would hold up the power. This was the first time this season where I could row a straight 2k. The 4x2km (at 2 minutes rest) is quite a good simulation for a head race, even though I rated it a lot lower.

After the first 2k (tailwind), I thought I could hold 230W, but that was a mistake. The second interval, with headwind, wore me out. So in the third interval I tuned down the power to 210W. In the final interval, again into headwind, I had difficulty keeping the rate and power up. I guess it was a good workout.

Workout Summary - media/20170320-183856-Sanders SpeedCoach 20170320 0453pmo.csv --|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg --|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS --|08000|36:01.0|02:15.1|211.2|25.3|173.5|180.0|08.8 W-|08000|36:01.0|02:15.1|211.0|25.3|173.5|180.0|08.8 R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|180.0|00.0 Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 00|02000|08:32.2|02:08.0|232.9|25.9|171.7|180.0|09.0 01|02000|09:16.6|02:19.2|210.4|25.4|175.1|180.0|08.5 02|02000|08:45.5|02:11.4|203.6|25.7|174.1|178.0|08.9 03|02000|09:27.3|02:21.8|198.7|24.4|173.0|179.0|08.7

Here are the metrics plots. I have moved the wing rigger a bit bow-wards. Perhaps a bit too much. Need to adjust it slightly.

Wash was 14.5 +/- 1.4 degrees. Slip was 5.5 +/- 0.9 degrees. Effective stroke length was 86 +/- 3 degrees at a total stroke length of 106.3 +/- 1.8 degrees. Pretty consistent, I would say. These metrics take into account only the 2k efforts, not the paddling in between.

In the US, I got myself an additional heart rate belt. I bought the advanced version of the Wahoo Tickr, the Tickr X. It’s a cool device. It can record a workout without the need of a watch or phone (you can sync later, when you’re near a phone), and claims to record cadence, stride length, and other cool parameters.

I downloaded the Wahoo Runfit app and did their “7 minute body weight workout”. It is fun to see how they use the accelerometer to measure number of pushups and jumping jacks. This is extremely cool and I will certainly make this HR belt my travel belt, to use with the Runfit app for hotel room workouts. It really helps to have your phone shout instructions at you like a real workout coach. It also claims to do rowing. I will take a look at what it recorded later.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: 4x2km, Aerobic Power, OTW, rowing, single, training

Jan 3 2017

Abandoned session because of exploding head

I have the flu. Nothing very serious so far, and I did yesterday’s steady state session without problems.

Today, however, I didn’t feel fully recovered from the intervals. Which is weird.

The training plan asked for a 4x2km session. Haven’t done this one in a while. I went to the erg room with a plan. Take it easy. Just row 26spm and take whatever pace you get. It is more important to complete the session than to row it at PB pace.

That was the theory. I set off at 26spm and used the free speed I got from my erg video analysis advice report. Which got me through the first interval at 1:52 average pace, and half way through the third one. That was the point where my head exploded. Not literally, of course, but this was how it felt.

So let’s see how I feel tomorrow.

By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 2 • Tags: 4x2km, concept2, erg, OTE, rowing, training

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